In and around at-Tuwani, the Israeli military remarkably intensified its daily interceptions of Palestinian migrant laborers trying to leave the West Bank, sometimes applying lethal force. The army also continued failing to reliably accompany the schoolchildren on the complete route to and from school, leaving them vulnerable to settler attacks.  Palestinian shepherds continued challenging Israeli military prohibitions against their grazing of flocks on their own land.

On February 13, CPT Colombia received news of yet another massacre perpetrated against the indigenous community of the Awá of Nariño. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) affirmed that on February 11 an unknown armed group massacred 10 members of the Awá community while they were trying to flee their ancestral land. This follows the events of February 4, when it appears that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) murdered 17 members of the indigenous Awá people. In addition to these victims, three more people disappeared and remain missing after they tried to rescue the bodies of their relatives.

Gish, Kite and Scarsella met with representatives from Develop Youth Ability Association, an organization from Tuz, south of Kirkuk. The organization is dedicated to helping youth gain skills and hope for a better future, providing activities as an alternative to involvement in extremist or violent organizations.

In Barrancabermeja, 16 May, 1998 marks the beginning of a brutal paramilitary takeover. Into a small football field in the neighborhood of Campín came 30 to 50 armed men and changed the lives of everyone in the city, killing seven people outright and “disappearing” 25 more. On the weekend of 23/24 January this year, the first five bodies of the disappeared returned to the families after 10 years. The community accompanied the families to receive the remains, prayed with the families, cried with the families, and continued to resist violence and death with the families.

Africa Great Lakes CPT (AGLCPT) requests supporters to contact their governments and the embassies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda to encourage compliance with the processes of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Does the moon still shine woman of Congo
as your heart overflows tears
Can the moon light your sky
Has the spring run dry
Has the Light gone where no one knows?

I met Masika last month, when our Christian Peacemaker Team traveled to Minova.
Masika was with her husband and two daughters when Nkunda's rebel soldiers
came into her home in Buganga.  They shot and killed her husband and forced her to lie in his blood. Then 14 of the men proceeded to rape her. They also raped her daughters, one 14 and the other16 years old.  Both girls became pregnant from the rapes. Masika reported the rapes to the police, who did nothing.

The Jordan Valley is a place where Israeli flowers have electricity and Palestinian people do not.